This invention is generally related to thin films processing using semiconductor manufacturing equipment and is particularly directed to detection of arcing phenomena that may happen while using semiconductor manufacturing tools, for example a Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) tool.
Arcing problems may exist in almost all plasma environments within semiconductor process equipment due to a high voltage difference between two closely spaced points in a processing chamber of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment during manufacturing operations. For example, a direct current (DC) bipolar arcing may occur if there is excessive deposition or contamination on the deposition and/or cover ring of a PVD tool. As the result, such DC bipolar arcs may cause ablation of underlying materials, wafer breakage, and/or damage to the processing chamber. In order to minimize these undesirable incidents, arc detection systems have been developed. These systems, however, generally do not detect subtle arcing events or provide many false arc detections.
Failure to detect arcing events during the thin film processing leads to batches of unusable or low yield semiconductor wafers which, in turn, may lead to loss of potentially thousands of dollars in revenue. In addition, false arc detections may halt the processing and production, waste resources for inspection of the manufacturing tools, and cause mechanical defects in the manufacturing tools due to excessive inspections.